"Then, as I'm the Cheshire cat it's mine. Cheshire cat meet your cheese! Cheese, meet your cat! How do you do? So glad to see you!" and the cat shook paws with the cheese just as if Uncle Wiggily had introduced them.
"I dare say it's all right," went on the bunny uncle.
"Of course it is!" laughed the cat, smiling more than ever. "I'm so glad you found my cheese. I was afraid the March Hare had taken it for that silly 5 o'clock tea party. But I'm glad he didn't. At first I took you for the March Hare. You look like him, being a rabbit."
"My birthday is not in March, it is in April," said Uncle Wiggily, bowing.
"That's better," spoke the Cheshire cat. "You have done me a great favor by finding my cheese, and I hope to be able to do you one some day."
"Pray do not mention it," spoke the bunny uncle, modest like and shy, as he always was. He was just going to ask about Alice in Wonderland when the cat ran away with the cheese.
"Never mind," thought Uncle Wiggily. "That was the beginning of an adventure, anyhow. I wonder what the next part will be?" He did not have long to wait.
All of a sudden, as he was walking along through the woods, sort of leaning on his red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism crutch, there was a rustling in the bushes and out popped a whole lot of hungry rats.
"Ah, there IT is!" cried one rat, seizing hold of Uncle Wiggily by his ears.
"Yes, and just in time, too!" cried another, grabbing the bunny by his paws. "Into our den with IT before the mouse trap comes along and takes IT away from us!"
With that the rats, of which there were about five hundred and sixteen, began hustling Uncle Wiggily down a hole in the ground, and the first he knew they had him inside a wooden room in an underground house and they locked the door, taking the key out.
"What does this mean?" cried the bunny uncle. "Why do you treat me this way?"
"Why, IT can speak!" cried several of the rats, in surprise.
"Of course I can!" cried Uncle Wiggily, his pink nose twinkling. "But why do you call me IT?"
"Because you are a piece of cheese," said one rat, "and we always call cheese IT."
"Cheese? I, cheese?" asked astonished Uncle Wiggily.
"Of course," cried the biggest rat of all. "You're Cheshire cheese. Why, you perfume the whole room! We're so hungry for you. We thought the grocer had forgotten to send you. But it's all right now. Oh, what a delightful meal we shall have. We love Cheshire cheese," and the rats in the room with Mr. Longears looked very hungrily at the bunny uncle--very hungrily indeed.